


Your Friend Ana

by OrieJai



Category: Homestuck
Genre: 5 reasons to date a girl with an eating disorder, Anorexia, Bulimia, Eating Disorders, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Recovery, more of a please don't view eating disorders as cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4538961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrieJai/pseuds/OrieJai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat finally has the girl of his dreams. But, it soon becomes apparent that Terezi has darker demons than he had realized.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Friend Ana

**Author's Note:**

> This fic deals with the heavy topic of eating disorders. It is a very real thing to me due to events that happened when I was younger, making me much more likely to develop one and I figured writing this would help me get out my frustrations over this article I read two years ago and am constantly reminded of. Eating disorders are not cute and they never will be.  
> The article is called "5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder."

1\. Her obsession over her body will improve her overall looks.

Karkat will testify that Terezi had always been thin. Since they were kids she had been the wiry girl with a body as flat as a board, even when Aradia and Feferi had begun growing breasts. In high school she probably barely fit into a B cup bra. She was always skinny and athletic and loved to eat.

It was during high school Karkat started to notice changes.

The small girl started going to the gym and would probably eat about half of her plate before handing it off to Gamzee, whose red eyes and growling stomach could never get enough. Eventually, around their senior year, she started eating a bite or two and claim an upset stomach and slide it to someone, anyone but her. She started denying herself the red soda she had loved so much growing up, always asking for water anytime a friend handed her the carbonated drink.

It wasn’t bad at first. They never noticed anything unusual. It was just Terezi and although it was weird, she didn’t always seem to have a reason for her actions.

She started dating Karkat just months before his twentieth birthday and he had never been so happy in his life.

It didn’t occur to him until after he started dating as to why she always was so cautious about her appearance since middle school ended. Why she never indulged and ate so little. 

It wasn’t until he saw her with her shirt off in the light and could count individual ribs that he started to see a problem.

 

2\. She costs less money.

Whenever they would go out to eat, she only ever ordered a small salad. She would push the greens around her plate and stare before cutting them into tiny bits just to chew the tiny pieces slowly. Their friends would stare and the waiter would always ask if they wanted anything else, willing her with his eyes practically begging.

No, I just want something small.

Karkat always waited for the day she would eat more than half of a side salad. He waited for her to order a big meal, like she would’ve. He never pushed, just simply asked if she wanted some of his meal.

She never said yes.

And she rarely ever shopped for clothing. With breasts so small, she could almost always fit into the clothing for early teenagers or even children. She often stole an oversized shirt from Karkat’s side of the closet and wore it around the apartment with a pair of shorts that were always two sizes too big. The only new things she ever got were given to her by others.

 

3\. She’s fragile and vulnerable.

She grows quiet too often. She never used to be like this, not even in high school. It makes Karkat want to wrap her up and hold her daily, though she doesn’t let him.  
He catches her sometimes sitting in the early morning dark on the kitchen or bathroom floor. He sees silent tears and knows she will never tell him exactly what is going on. But he picks her up and carries her to their bed and pulls the covers over her.

He always places a hand on her waist, hoping it will provide some comfort as he feels her shake beside him.

She always smiles the next morning and offers a kiss before they leave for work or class. He knows she hasn’t or won’t eat, but he does not press the issue. He does not know how to handle the situation as he watches her slowly shrink before his eyes. He is large and does not deny himself when he feels the pains of hunger and wonders how anyone could.

He never understood the severity of these situations until he became a side character in a story about Terezi and something bloggers called Ana and Lia, attempting to make them cute when they were much more deadly than they appeared.

 

4\. She probably has money of her own.

Karkat notices the gifts, especially the timing.

After their first time having sex, when she has to stop because she’s so dizzy and sits in the bathroom for a half hour, she buys him movie tickets to the latest romantic comedy and sits through it without a single remark or complaint.

She buys him concert tickets for his favorite band when her hand shakes hard and drops a mug of hot coffee on the kitchen floor. 

A new watch when they go to his parents for the holidays and his mother askes what’s happened to hear and she overhears in the doorway when he tells his mother he thinks she’s sick. He never elaborates how, just that she hadn’t been feeling well and to leave her alone. Apologizing, he turns and notices her sad, blue eyes and he instantly regrets everything he said.

He knew she was spending her money on him to make him happy, so he wouldn’t notice how prominent her ribs were becoming, or how she would stare at her stomach while in the shower, and that she had covered the full sized mirror in their bedroom with a sheet. There was always another video game, a new romantic comedy to buy, but never anything for herself.

Its then he starts to think of calling a therapist and getting professional advice, for her sake. He could practically see Ana whispering to her with every pound she lost.

 

5\. She’s better in bed.

Terezi is the best sex he’s ever had. At first, he thinks it might be how small she is. How powerful he feels when he hovers over her small frame and pushes her into the mattress. How he is one of few who have seen her in this position. But, he begins to realize that her weight has nothing to do with it.

Everyone who he has slept with has been fairly thin. Nepeta, two or three times, with muscles and an impossibly flat stomach. John Egbert, his first sexual exploit with another male who was too afraid to tell of their relationship to the world, claiming that he didn’t want to be known as a “homosexual” and left him for a girl with long hair, blue eyes, and an intense fondness for spiders. Dave Strider, who he held a mutual agreement with that it was only for sex and still remained a good friend of his and Terezi’s. The only exception would probably be Jade, dark skinned, almost overwhelmingly muscular, and green eyed with several fetishes he never openly questioned.

He realized one evening, a year and a half into their relationship, when light streams in from the window from the sunset, one of the only times she allowed light in the bedroom, claiming discomfort with the bedside lamp or the overhead light, he could see her face. She was rarely so expressive and he loved watching her face twist in pleasure and feelings she never allowed onto her face in broad daylight. Her laughs were always hollow outside of the bedroom, her eyes vacant. Here he could hold her gaze and make her feel as if she were the most beautiful thing he had ever seem regardless of anything.

She is never the one to initiate it and rarely ever declines.

One night, he finds her crying on the bathroom floor after a night of sex. The contents of the toilet is red and he runs her to the hospital. He sets up to meet with a therapist and starts to organize an intervention as she sleeps soundly in the hospital bed. He never wanted to see her waste away.

 

A week passed as he got their closest friends and a therapist to sit in a room. Dave is, surprisingly, the most emotional of the group, but manages to keep composure as he tells her how much he wants to see her get better. Nepeta cries. Vriska continuously asks if it’s her fault (it’s not).

There are a lot of tears and accusations, but she agrees to go to treatment and to gain back what she lost.

Karkat visits her every time he can. The treatment center has visiting days once a month and no more. Every time he sees her she looks healthier. Her cheeks become rounder, and her eyes a little more clear. He can tell it’s not easy. The first few visits were cold and quiet, distant. After a while, though, she starts smiling when she sees him, wide and toothy.

Eventually, she leaves and only has to go to a therapist once a week for check ins. Soon it becomes every two weeks. Then once a month.

There are still days she slips back into the habit. Asking if she wants something to eat, she’ll say no until someone insists. She has trouble eating regular foods to begin with, so Karkat often opts for soups and light meals to make her more comfortable.

He notices how much she’s changed when she comes home with three new shirts and a pair of jeans that, though loose fitting, shows all the curves she had gained in the past several months. He watches her as she pulls them on in front of the mirror in their bedroom, deciding for the first time in months that the only makeup she needs to leave the house is eyeliner around her eyes and lipstick on her mouth, not even bothering to cover the lightened rings around her eyes or the freckles she always seemed to hate. She smiles more and laughs openly. 

Karkat has never found her more beautiful.

Tears of joy almost fall down his face the day she asks for him to grab a Red Pop soda from the store.

Ana was still there, but Karkat would make sure Terezi had the support she needed anytime she felt the call of her old friend in the back of her mind.

Because, ultimately, in the end, it was never him who saved her.

She saved herself.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it. Feel free to leave feedback.  
> I have another fic in the works. Its inspired by the musical Wicked, but its a DaveKat fic where Karkat is Elphaba and Terezi is Galinda and its a longer one. I plan to post the first chapter soon.  
> I might rework the title of this fic. If you have any other ideas, or want me to keep it the same, post a comment.


End file.
